A man who ran away from police died after being electrocuted and hit by a Tube train that had been dispatched to look for him late at night.
Transport for London has been reprimanded by a coroner for its failures to follow safety procedures that should be activated when a passenger is thought to be on the tracks.
It is the latest incident to emerge in which TfL has faced criticism for the death of distressed individuals who step onto the tracks.
The tragedy occurred after police responded to reports of a fight and criminal damage outside Colindale station on May 19 last year.
Robert English, 32, was electrocuted when the power supply on this section of the Northern line was switched back on, having been turned off by the station manager when he was seen leaving the platform.
According to a report by coroner Andrew Walker, a Tube train that had been held stationary began to search the track, then ran over Mr English, who was about 400m to 600m from the station.
“The train was not adequately equipped to conduct such a search in darkness and this response was inadequate,” Mr Walker said in a prevention of future deaths report.
The North London coroner warned that more deaths could occur unless TfL improves the way it searches for passengers at night.
He said: “The ability to locate a person close to or on the railway lines at night is made more difficult by the absence of suitable lights on the track or the train.
“In this case Mr English was not seen and run over by the train that has been asked to look for a person on the line.”
It is understood that Tube trains are often run at slow speeds through tunnels to investigate reported incidents suhc as a trespasser, an object on the track or smoke.
No passengers are on board - only the Tube driver and a member of the emergency response unit.
Immediately after the incident, the Metropolitan Police referred itself to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, as its officers had been in contact with Mr English prior to his death. The IOPC later referred the case back to the Met.
An inquest that ended on June 10 concluded that Mr English’s death by electrocution was the consequence of a “failure to follow the proper process to recover a person from a stretch of railway”.
The power had been switched off between Hendon Central and Burnt Oak – a stretch of the Northern line’s Edgware branch that includes Colindale – after Mr English was thought to have travelled down the track “on foot in the dark” at around 1am.
Colindale station is a surface-level station at the northern end of the Northern line.
According to the coroner’s report, two police officers had followed Mr English into the station “having formed the view that he may be unwell and sought to contain him rather than restrain him”.
The coroner said: “Mr English, who may have been confused by the actions of the police, ran to the platform where the police again tried to contain him.
“Mr English then left the platform and made his way into the night beyond the station. The local station manager asked for the power supply to the track to be turned off.”
The police believed Mr English may have climbed over a fence that separated the station from a park, but on arrival were told by a member of the public that he was still on the station side of the fence.
After being wrongly reassured that Mr English was “nowhere to be seen”, a Tube manager asked the station manager to ask for the track power to be switched back on.
However, the police were not told that the power was being switched back on – meaning they had no opportunity to tell TfL that Mr English had not been found and was probably “still on the railway side of the tracks”.
The coroner said: “It is likely that had this step been followed the power supply would not have been switched on and a proper search, which was also possible, is likely to have found Mr English and returned him safely to the station.”
A Met Police spokeswoman said: “After carefully assessing the referral, the IOPC returned the matter to the Met Police to deal with as appropriate, concluding it was unclear what more officers could have done to prevent the incident after Mr English went onto the tracks and was struck by a train.
“Following an inquest into the death, the coroner recorded a conclusion which included a summary of police actions and recognised that officers had reasonably believed that Mr English had gone into the park and was no longer trackside.
“The coroner made no implicit causative link between the actions of Met officers and the death of Mr English.”
According to TfL’s annual health and safety report, six people died on the London Underground in 2024/25 “after they had either fallen or walked onto the track” and were subsequently hit by a train.
In April, TfL was issued with a prevention of future deaths report following the death of artist Sarah Cunningham, who entered a Tube tunnel at Chalk Farm station while intoxicated.
The coroner in this case, Mary Hassell, urged TfL to inform its “corporate planning” with the need to do more to consider the risks that passers can be to themselves.
TfL has been given until September 19 to respond to the Mr Walker’s notice.
Claire Mann, TfL’s chief operating officer, said: “Our thoughts are with the friends and family of Robert English following his tragic death last year.
“We are committed to working with policing partners and reviewing our own operational practices to learn from this incident. We undertook a formal investigation of the incident and assisted the coroner during the inquest.
“We are thoroughly reviewing the coroner's prevention of future deaths report before responding in full and will consider any appropriate actions to make the transport network as safe as possible.”
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